An American Thanksgiving Abroad... Sorta

Having now missed four consecutive Thanksgiving season in the USA I like to still celebrate it as best as I can in Europe with food. While in my first year abroad I went all out and got a turkey, the following years were a bit more mellow and I celebrated with a Thanksgiving chicken. My boyfriend doesn't really care for turkey and he refuses to eat leftover poultry, so we usually go for the chicken. Both the chicken and turkey taste about the same to me, and there is no way I can eat all of the turkey leftovers (learned that the hard way the first year). He also doesn't like mashed potatoes (whaaaa?), so we usually just serve the dinner with rice. I love mashed potatoes, but by the time it usually comes down to doing the potatoes I'm tired and rice is just easier. Someday I will have mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving again...

So this year we again had the Thanksgiving chicken, rice and gravy, green bean casserole, and sweet potato pie. It's not quite as large or diverse as the typical American Thanksgiving, but it's already too much for the two of use. The green bean casserole is another one of those dishes that uses that processed can of Campbell's cream of something soup, so I had to go online again and find homemade recipes and modify them. I did this my second year abroad, and you know what? I will never go back to the Campbell's recipe again. Homemade is so much better!

The pie, on the other hand, was an expiriment of mine this year. For Thanksgiving in the USA, there are two types of pies that are commonplace on the dining room table: the pumpkin pie and the sweet potato pie. Where I grew up in the northern US, pumpkin pie is by far the most typical dish to be served. However, in the southern US, sweet potato pie is the dessert of choice.

In both Norway and Iceland, the Americans hunt down cans of pureed pumpkin like it's going out of stock (and sometimes, especially in Iceland, it is). Remember how Americans are lazy? Yeah, we don't take the time to puree a pumpkin, we would rather just buy it in a can. Admittedly, I did buy two cans of pumpkin in Norway... at 60 Norwegian kroners (8.20 euros) a pop. That's a lot considering you can get them for one US dollar (0.77 euros) in the USA. In Iceland I am told that it costs about 2.20 euros (359 Icelandic kroners). Being that I am in a small rural town, pumpkin is not sold here, so I had to branch out.

I looked up sweet potato pie recipes online, but they still required cans of evaporated milk, which do not exist in my Icelandic town and did not have all of the spices that I'm used to in the pumpkin pie. I have also never seen nor tasted a sweet potato pie, so I had no idea what I was in for. Not to mention I have never even made a pumpkin pie before (I've made pies.. all berry pies and they were unsucessful) because I usually prefer pumpkin cheesecake (I'm a rock star at cheesecakes!). I really wanted my boyfriend to try a pumpkin pie or at least something close to it. Thus, I merged about three recipes, improvised a little, and ended up with a lovely surprise.

It was perfect! I did over cook it a bit, so I will have to adjust the cooking time next time, but it was very tasty and looked cute despite some cracking due to it being in the oven too long. Here's what I created...

Sweet Potato Pie

Crust:

1 1/4 cups flour

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup shortening

ice cold water (add teaspoon by teaspoon until you reach the right consistency)

Instructions:

1. Place flour, salt, butter and shortening in a bowl.
2. Use your hands (or a pastry cutter) to combine ingredients until small pebbles form.
3. Add cold water a teaspoon at a time until the dough begins to hold together and form a ball.
4. Do not over handle the dough. Dough should be soft, moist but not wet.
5. Roll out the dough into a circle. If your pie pan is 9 inches make sure your circle is bigger than 9 inches so you have enough for the edging..
6. Gently press the pastry into the pan. Use your fingers to crimp the edge of the crust. If you have to do any repair work to the crust, dip your fingers in the cold water and smooth the dough together as best as you can.
7. Prick the bottom of crust to prevent bubbling during baking.

This makes only a bottom crust for a pie. If you are making a pie that requires a top crust, you would need to double the recipe.

Filling:
1 1/2 cups mashed roasted sweet potato
3/4 cup whipping cream (unwhipped)
1 cup packed dark brown sugar or granulated sugar (I used half of each)
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
Pinch salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

In a large bowl, whisk everything until it is well blended and smooth. Pour into the crust. The mixture should be very runny, but don't fret! It will firm up during the baking process. Since it is so runny, I recommend pouring the mixture into the pie crust once the pie crust is already in the oven. This way you can avoid any spills when walking the pie to the oven.

Every recipe I found online said to bake the pie for 50 to 60 minutes, but I think next time I will cook it for 70 to 75 minutes. It should cook until the filling is set but still just a little wobbly in the middle and the crust is golden. The filling will continue to set even once it is taken out of the oven.

If the crust is browning too quickly, cover the pie lightly with a sheet of foil as it bakes. Cool completely in the pan on a wire rack. Let the pie sit on the counter for about an hour and a half to cool. Do not put it immediately into the refridgerate because it will crack.

The pie should be served cold and with whipped cream. It's best to make it the day before you intend to eat it.